Advances in Rearing Early-Growth Stages of Fish and Shrimp

Dear Colleagues,

Successful fish or shrimp aquaculture depends primarily on larval rearing. During the larval stages, most aquaculturally significant species experience various growth anomalies, such as reduced body size/weight, stunted development, somatic malformations, failure to reach the next developmental stage or even high mortality rates.

Although aquaculturists generally notice these problems in their hatcheries/nurseries, they often underemphasize their significance. Obtaining sufficient research data on these aspects would not only minimize the loss of resources, but also help to enhance aquaculture production.

Larval feeding and the rearing of fish and shrimp are accomplished by using live food and dry feeds. Comparative data using these two types of early larval diets are rarely published. In addition, data related to the nutritional quality of live food, dry feeds, and the larval stages of aquaculturally important taxa are only sometimes published.

This Special Issue aims to minimize the gap in scientific knowledge that exists with regard to larval rearing. The scope of this Special Issue includes, but is not limited to, the following themes: Behavioral studies; inappropriate prey/pellet; poor nutritional quality; competition/ cannibalism among larvae; stunted growth due to the unavailability of prey/diet; larval mortality; problems of mass zooplankton cultures; condition–factor; diseases; low assimilation; and reduced swimming speed.

Prof. Dr. S.S.S. Sarma
Prof. Dr. Sarma Nandini
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Fishes is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• fish/shrimp larval feeding
• pellet diet
• zooplankton prey
• field/laboratory trials